The View From Your Recession

I'm an author of European historical romances. I've been published for
more than ten years now and write for a major New York publisher. While
publishing companies are taking pay freezes and handing out lay-offs as
much as the next company, and while it's true that book sales across
the board are down, including those of other genre fiction, the romance
imprint of my particular company is making money (if only a little), as
are those of other
companies.

Torstar, the company that publishes Harlequin category
romances, actually made money in the fourth quarter due to Harlequin
sales.

In the report, it states: "Harlequin finished the year strongly with another good
quarter that drove earnings for the year up 11 percent.
This is the third year in a row of business growth for Harlequin
which is making important gains in both print and digital
products. We are very pleased with Harlequin's performance
and prospects." And, "The outlook for 2009 is mixed and marked by uncertainty
due to the economy. At Harlequin, we expect continuing stable
results building on the success and growth of the last three
years. Overall, we anticipate Harlequin will deliver a fourth
good year in a row. Harlequin's results have held up well
to date despite the recession. Subject to trends in employment
advertising, we also expect continued good performance from
our online businesses, but with lower rates of revenue growth
than in previous years as overall advertising expenditures
are constrained by the economy."

Although
the romance novel industry is constantly derided from the
outside, made fun of and considered "trash" by the uninformed, these
are not the romance novels your mother read, nor anything like the
Barbara Cartland books gathering dust on your grandmother's bookshelf.
This is a HUGE business of numerous sub-genres for all tastes, and
regardless of what anybody thinks, romance novels SELL. Romance fiction
generated$1.375 billion in sales in 2007.
And while other forms of entertainment suffer economically, romance
novels usually sell better during economic downturns. Why?
Probably because it's cheap -- anywhere from $4 to $8 for several hours
worth of escape in the privacy of your own garden, bed, or bathtub ---
and best of all, when times are awful everywhere you're guaranteed a
happy ending.

A
close friend and fellow mid-list romance author just
signed another contract last week and received a raise. Yesterday,
along with my ongoing contract for new books, I signed new contracts of
my own so my publisher will reprint my backlist. We're not a huge
stars, nor are we rich, but there are a lot of people out there who are
going to spend seven bucks on the next one-- if only to help them
forget the tough times we're facing right now.

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